Evren raised her brows to hear that the young stranger was Indira’s daughter. Part of her had suspected this, but Kalayani’s thicker build and feathering had thrown her off. Now that she was looking, she could see subtle similarities between mother and daughter, though it was difficult to tell in the dim light. Kalayani must have taken strongly after her sire.
Flashing the young mare - her niece - a smile, Evren said, “Welcome to the family, kid. You got way more than you bargained for.” Of course, Evren could say the same of herself. Just minutes ago Tarek was the only blood family she had left; now there was a whole harem. It was enough to leave Evren feeling disoriented, as though she might wake up in the morning to find they had all been a dream.
Evren half-listened as Tarek explained the situation to Yngvar, her eyes darting between each horse in turn as she appraised the situation. Then, to her surprise, Tarek directed a sharp retort in her direction. Evren looked back at him blankly, her mouth parted. She was uncertain how to respond. Her nephew had never snapped at her in such a way. She understood his anger, however, and so she didn’t rise to the bait. Tarek’s mate and child had been abducted; he had every reason to be stressed. Yet his words had the ring of truth, and Evren was reminded of the argument she’d had with Han shortly before he left. He, too, had accused Evren of leaving him out of things.
Apparently this was a habit of hers that she needed to work on.
Doing her best to ignore the sting his comment had left, Evren was grateful when Indira stepped in to soothe the situation. She nodded at Indira’s reassurance, and when she offered to stay behind and help guard the Forest with Tarek, Evren breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thank you,” she replied earnestly. “I’ll sleep easier on my journey knowing you’ll be here.” Evren’s heart swelled with affection when Indira again expressed her joy at their reunion, and, unable to stop herself, she stepped forward and pulled her sister into another, longer embrace. “You were gone too long,” she murmured into Indira’s mane, and felt a lump of emotion in her throat. “We have a lot to catch up on.”
Once she had pulled away, Evren looked back to Tarek. Though she had ignored his comment, there was still palpable tension in the air, and Evren was not one to let that go unresolved. “Come here, you,” Evren said, and pulled her nephew into a brief embrace so that he would not feel left out. Once she had pulled away, she looked into his face with an earnest expression. “Listen, I’m sorry I didn’t say anything. We were hoping to keep this visit strictly diplomatic, so we didn’t feel the need to inform the herd. Even so, you should know that you can come to me about anything. Persphone and I care about you and Hannah, and if we had known sooner that Warsaw had taken her, well… we might have approached the situation differently. Now that I do know, that definitely changes things.”
Evren heaved a heavy sigh and shot a glance at Indira. ”I’m not entirely sure how ‘diplomatic’ this visit is going to be after all.”
She could feel dread and anger pulsating deep within her. This could mean only one thing. War.
9; mutt; bay tobiano; 15.3hh |
